Ally Financial to offer dealers 5 percent of the common shares as part of IPO

Ally Financial Inc. submitted a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where it confirmed plans to offer as high as 5% of the common shares to auto dealers issued as part of its initial public offering.

As a result, auto dealers (who are the main customers of Ally) will get access to the lender's public stock offering anticipated this summer. Ally, which is formerly known as GMAC, offers inventory financing to approximately 5,000 U.S. dealers.

A majority of this number represent General Motors and Chrysler Group brands. In an amended IPO prospectus with the SEC last week, Ally said that the general public will be offered any shares left from the 5% reserve. Ally declined to reveal the dealer eligibility requirements for the directed share program.

Meanwhile, Ally spokeswoman Gina Proia chose not to comment on the possible size or timing of the stock offering.

Early this year, The Wall Street Journal got information from insiders that the U.S. Treasury wants to sell about $5 billion of common stock as part of the offering. Ally filed a prospectus in late March to go public. About 73.8% of the lender is owned by the U.S. government.

On the New York Stock Exchange, the shares will trade under the symbol ALLY. The problem is that U.S. stock markets have been drawing back after the filing. There have been concerns about the economic improvement in the U.S. that cause further complexity to IPOs that Chrysler and Delphi Automotive are planning.

Last week, Chrysler implied that it may actually pass up an IPO altogether. During the Ally IPO, the U.S. Treasury Department intends to convert $2.9 billion of its existing holding of $5.9 billion of preferred securities into common stock, as indicated by Ally in an amended IPO prospectus filing last May with the SEC.